(29-04-2012 09:11 PM)angry-santa Wrote: Ok I never got an answer, So how do you feel about this pleasant (badly) drawn image of mohammad eating some birthday cake?

Not much of a reaction in me. It's just a cartoon.

And I did answer your question, angry-santa, but you probably missed it. See post # 53 (near the bottom).

ShirubaDangan, you are right that the Quran doesn't specifically say that drawing an image of Muhammad is a blasphemy, although it does say that no one should mock him or insult him. However, the Quran doesn't tell us to harm or punish those who do mock the Prophet. I know that some Imams or Mullahs would like to issue a fatwa on someone who drew a cartoon of the Prophet, but that is almost completely based on his own opinion and/or interpretations, and not something that is directly taken from the Quran or Hadiths, as far as I know.

That being said, I have more questions to answer. I will try to post them some time today or tomorrow. Thank you to everyone for reading and participating in this thread.

That's nice to know, I found the reply, thank you. Though it does little to comfort the relatives of Theo Van Gogh, Who was Killed and almost beheaded for drawing said "prophet".

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

I was just reading a lot of websites and articles that are related to Islam and that's why I decided to postpone my reply until I finish doing that. But, I'm still learning everyday. This is a life-long process and (ironically) the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. There's an incredible amount of things to learn about on almost every subject in Islam. And I oftentimes read these kind of things on my free time. So, I may not post here for a couple of days (or weeks), but that doesn't mean that I left.

That being said, now I'm going to post a few of my answers that are short and easy. Then, I will answer some of the other questions in the next post.

(25-04-2012 10:16 AM)NoahsFarce Wrote: I am looking for a response rather than asking a question. And rather than typing out a wall of text, I'll post a video of Neil deGrasse Tyson giving a speech on the subject matter:

I think that Neil deGrasse is an intelligent guy. Thanks for posting the video.

However, not surprisingly, I didn't hear the scientist make any specific references to religion itself to show that this was the cause for the "erosion of progress," as suggested by the title of the video. He was just basically talking about all the great contributions in the areas of science, art, mathematics, science, technology, architecture, creativity, etc. made by the Arabs at one period in history, only to briefly mention the eventual downfall of all of this in a way as to imply as if Islam was the cause behind it. But, from a historical perspective, that is an incorrect idea because the reasons that the Muslims world fell into a decline has nothing to do with Islam. Rather, a large part of it was due to the Mongol and Crusader invasions which as a result burned and destroyed many of the madrasahs, libraries, and books. There are several other political and economical reasons for such a decline that I read about which, again, is not a result of Islam itself. You can learn more about those reasons at the article below:

More importantly, Islam is not against learning or discovering anything new, nor is there any scientific fact or discovery that Islam rejects. And this covers every scientific field of investigation from medicine and psychology to physics, geology, archaeology, cosmology, biology, and everything else. Therefore, the idea that the growth of science and technology in the Muslim world is against Islam is not correct.

(28-04-2012 05:58 AM)earmuffs Wrote: Yeah I got a question, it's in relation to the 72 virgins thing.
72, seems like a bit of a low number don't you think? I mean, you're in the afterlife for what.. ever? so you have to somehow spread out 72 virgins over the period of infinite, how does one do that? If you were to spread it out over say, 1 every hundred years and you'd still run out in 7,200 years, then what are you gonna do for the rest of the infinite years??

Actually, it is not true that Muslims believe in the 72 virgin thing. If you do a search on Google, you'll know that there is not a single verse in the Quran which says that martyrs will get 72 virgins. It's only something that anti-Muslims started using just to ridicule our faith. What the Quran does say is that the people in Paradise will be rewarded with virgins (or houris) and many other things in Heaven, but it doesn't mention a specific number like "72" virgins. This is only found in a weak hadith, with a single narrator, and that's why most Muslims do not even believe in this hadith. It may have been fabricated or even corrupted along its chain of transmitters. You can read more about this 72 virgin myth at the article below:

(28-04-2012 07:50 PM)gdemoss Wrote: I was told that the Muslim version of Jesus is supposed to be a man who was a prophet that is going to return and destroy all of those who have given false testimony of who he really is. Is this true?

Yeah, the Muslim version of Jesus is that he was only a Prophet. We do not consider Jesus to be God nor the son of God. As I explained in my OP, Muslims believe that the God-like attributes of Jesus were not the original teachings of Christianity. These were additions of men that got mixed into the revealed words of the scriptures. However, we do not believe that he is going to "destroy" all those who gave a false testimony of who really is. We just believe that they will be punished by God for doing that and/or believing in that. The Quran only talks about Jesus as a Prophet of God and his miracles and mission. It doesn't exactly say what Jesus will do or say to us when he returns.

Even though Muslims believe that all the prophets are great, Muslims believe that Muhammad was a greater prophet than Jesus because he is the seal of all the other prophets and there will be no other prophets after him. However, we certainly love and respect Jesus as the Christians do, except that we don't worship him nor pray to him. We simply regard him as one of the prophets of God. Essentially, the point is that we are not supposed to over-praise any of the prophets because God is the greatest and He is the one who deserves all the praise.

(04-05-2012 01:29 PM)Chas Wrote: Still waiting on an actual answer to why any self-respecting woman would submit to the second-class status 'enjoyed' by women in Islam (or Christianity or Judaism or Mormonism or ...).

As you have already seen, I replied to that question in post # 29. You didn't respond to or refute any of those points. And I'm sorry, Chas, but I don't understand exactly what makes you think that that was not an "actual" answer. I have said everything that I wanted to say. Since you disagree, however, feel free to tell me which parts you disagree with and why. If you don't want to do that, then you can ask me another question.